A Christian woman who is a regular debater at Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner in the United Kingdom was recently stabbed by an unidentified assailant. A video that captured the incident has been circulating online. The video, published by The Daily Mail on July 25th, shows a man recording a usual Sunday morning at the Speakers’ Corner. A hooded man from inside the crowd dashed to a woman wearing a blue shirt with a “Charlie Hebdo” print and attacked her.
It’s about time we start having an honest and frank conversation about radical #Islam. #Blasphemy is a part and parcel of a free society.
Check out my views on the recent attack on Hatun Tash at #SpeakersCorner on @RT_com pic.twitter.com/30mcjeaUdo
— Harris Sultan (@TheHarrisSultan) July 27, 2021
The victim, 39-year old Hatun Tash, is a Turkish Christian preacher and director of Defend Christ Critique Islam (DCCI) Ministries in London, UK. Hatun’s ministry has been proactively engaging other religions in debates but has been explicitly targeting Islam. She claims that she is not new to being harassed and being physically attacked. Hatun also claimed to be illegally detained by the Metropolitan Police.
In the video, Hatun can be seen walking beside an ongoing discussion with debaters starting their Sunday morning off early. Hatun was holding an umbrella and was wearing an unzipped jacket, showing her blue shirt from the French publication Charlie Hebdo, which is notorious for its cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. Aside from the cartoon of a muslim man kissing a cartoonist, Hatun’s shirt also includes the phrase “mour plus fort que la haine ” (translation; Love is Stronger than Hate). A man wearing a black, hooded raincoat started attacking Hatun and immediately ran away after the abrupt physical contact. It was not immediately apparent that the assault was a stabbing. Hatun can be seen holding her head when the cameraman approached; blood can be seen from the area where the man’s hands landed.
The crowd immediately attended to Hatun, and later on, was taken care of by the police. An ambulance was also called to the scene to take care of her wounds. The police stated that Hatun suffered minor injuries but is not in life-threatening condition.
Alex Bingley, the Detective Superintendent of Central West Command Unit, calls the stabbing “a very distressing incident.” Detective Bingley acknowledged that the incident has multiple witnesses and possibly multiple video footage are available. He asked the public to refrain from forming conclusions about the motive of the attack, saying that they are “in the early stages of our investigation.” Detective Bingly added that a knife was found on the scene and that “Officers from Westminster are working alongside the Royal Parks OCU to investigate and identify the man responsible.”
At the time of this writing, no suspects have been identified or arrested.
This is not the first time that Hatun Tash was assaulted at Speaker’s corner. In late October 2020, she was punched in the face by a man while she was debating a Muslim speaker. Her glasses were broken, but she was mostly unharmed. You can see footage of this incident here:
Watch Video: "Hatun Tash ASSAULTED by Muslim For Muhammad Cartoon" by Apostate Prophet here
